ARTINFO has learned that Art Culture Studio, the organizers of the Moscow World Fine Art Fair, have decided to cancel the sixth edition of the fair, which was to have taken place from May 25 to June 1. The company plans to announce the decision on Friday.

According to General Manager Sixtine Crutchfield, who was reached by phone, the cancellation came mainly due to the inability to secure sufficient sponsorship. Sponsorship covers the approximately €3 million ($3.9 million) production costs of the fair, said Crutchfield, while booth fees from dealers pay for the rental of the Manege building, where the fair takes place.

“We depend on sponsors, and the timing became critical,” she said. “Either we took the risk that they came on in the end, or we played it safe. We decided to play it safe.”

Crutchfield said that only a few dealers had pulled out of the fair, but two major cancellations came from jewelers Bulgari and Harry Winston. According to Crutchfield, Mercury, the most prominent luxury goods distributor in Russia, discouraged the firms from participating with their own booths, as opposed to under Mercury’s rubric. (Mercury recently bought auction house Philips de Pury & Co.)

Crutchfield characterized the decision as “hasty,” but said it was better to “cancel now rather than months from now, when our exhibitors would have been putting stock aside. Even though indicators like Art Basel Miami Beach and the jewelry fair in Geneva went well, May is a long time from now, and the crisis could get worse.” The organizers hope to revive the fair in 2010.

“From my point of view, this is sad,” she said. “Because the exhibitors supported us, and the quality is there. We would have had a nice exhibition again. We already started advertising in the provinces, so we would have had new Russian collectors from outside of Moscow this year. But this was a management decision. We decided not to take the risk.”

Based in Geneva, Art Culture Studio also organizes the Salzburg World Fine Art Fair, which is scheduled to take place in August.

Sarah Douglas is Staff Writer at Art+Auction. She blogs at The Appraisal.